1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a remote user interface providing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for providing a remote user interface which is suitable for a capability of an apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a remote user interface is provided with a user interface from a remote apparatus and shows the user interface to a user to allow the user to control the remote apparatus.
An apparatus for providing a user interface which executes such a technique, a remote user interface server, and an apparatus (a remote user interface client) which is provided with the user interface, perform a process of matching capabilities therebetween to determine whether the user interface can be processed.
To be more specific, the remote user interface server (hereinafter, a remote UI server) forwards a user interface list (hereinafter, a UI list) including profiles of a plurality of user interfaces (hereinafter, UIs) and information about video profiles to the remote user interface client (hereinafter, a remote UI client). The remote UI client, upon receiving the UI list, performs profile matching if there is a selection of a UI, to identify the profile of the selected UI and a video profile supported in the remote UI client, and forwards a UI request, together with an identifying result, to the remote UI server. The remote UI server, upon receiving the request and result, performs profile matching to identify the profile of the UI selected in the remote UI client and the video profile supported in the remote UI client, and selects a video profile which can be supported in the remote UI server. Thereafter, the remote UI server forwards the UI optimized for the remote UI client to the remote UI client by using the selected video profile. If there is a request for a new UI, the remote UI server and the remote UI client perform the foregoing process in the same manner as described above.
As such, conventionally, to provide a UI, the remote UI server and the remote UI client perform profile matching to identify a video profile supported in the remote UI client and a video profile supported in the remote UI server, and provide a UI according to the identified results.
However, in this case, the remote UI server needs to prepare for UI profiles and video profiles for various remote UI clients and has to perform profile matching several times, increasing the overhead of the remote UI server.
Moreover, the remote UI client has to transmit client information such as a UI profile, a video profile, and an apparatus profile, each time when sending a request for a UI to the remote UI server.